After years of delays, the Greek capital’s first modern Muslim house of worship is slated for completion by the end of April, as work at the site has gotten back on track.

The tender for the 887,000-euros project, financed through the Public Investment Program, was signed with a consortium of Greece’s four biggest construction firms on October 10. Work, however, did not commence until November 4 as the site at a former navy facility in Votanikos was occupied by protesters from the far-right, which vehemently objects to the presence of a working mosque in the predominantly Christian Orthodox country. The project has also met with resistance from the Church of Greece.

The site measures a total of 1.7 hectares, which is currently being transformed to accommodate a 1,000 square meter mosque that will have a prayer area for men with a capacity of 300 people and another for women with a capacity of 50. While it will have a spring as dictated by Islamic religious convention, it will not have a minaret and broadcast prayers.

With the foundations now being laid, the consortium says it expects to deliver the site in end-April, thus ending a saga that exposed Greece to criticism for failing to comply with European directives concerning religious freedoms.

I'm sure you won't enjoy needing a passport to visit Greece in the next few years

Passport free travel is imposible without the EU? Since when?

I just visited Istanbul for 4 days and I got into NON EU Turkey with my Greek ID. Just as Turks can visit Greece with their Turkish ID. Which goes to show you that bilateral agreements between sovereign nations can eliminate passport requirements. And if Greece has an interest in British visitors they'll work out an arrangement with the UK.

Traveling to and from European countries with or without a passport will be the least of the problems Brits will be facing in the next few years. But then, that's just my opinion (and the opinion of several analysts too...).

Other people (and other analysts...) believe that nothing will change, and yet other ones believe that things will be better for the Brits outside the EU. Time will tell who's right.

What's the big deal about needing a passport? I use one every year when flying from Canada to Greece.

You need some form of documentation to enter any country. Be it passport or ID makes no difference. To normal folks that is. Progressive EU cheerleaders on the other hand make a big deal about it cause it is the last pro EU argument that remains in their arsenal.

What else is there? Pointing out the challenges the UK may face after Brexit?

As if EU members Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium were not on the brink.

With youth unemployment in Southern Europe at 50% the Eurocrats insist on bringing in more, mainly young, immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries. How does that help the European youths?

And yes! Lets celebrate the building of a Mosque in Athens and welcome the demographic shift immigration is causing. This is bound to make our society more "Progressive" and better the living standards of our people.

What's the big deal about needing a passport? I use one every year when flying from Canada to Greece.

I'd ask those people who need a visa to travel to Canada or the US or any European country to find out why it's a big deal to travel without a passport. Even Canadians made a big deal out of this a few years ago when they had to start using passports to visit the US, remember?

Also, it's not just about the passport, it's about doing business, working etc. anywhere in Europe without the need of any "special" documents. One market. This is the big deal for EU. And this is one of the issues that the UK will have to deal with when they're officially out of the EU. They'll have to strike individual agreements (with each EU country in some cases) for every little thing.

More than all this though it's the sense of belonging to a "united" Europe. This has been the dream of many Europeans for generations. Granted that EU has many faults the way it operates, it still created this sense of a "united" Europe.

Every year I visit Greece twice and wont get in without my passport, I've never visited an EU member nation that would let me in without one. I'm all for European unity but not when it's run as a gravy train for the select few. If Britain turns out a bit worse for leaving then so be it, although it may turn out for the better as no one is sure of anything. As has been stated the southern countries might soon hold their leaders to task over the ongoing unemployment amongst the youth of the continent which are at unsustainable levels for a so called civil society.